While the late-April frost may have been less damaging in
Chablis than it was on the Côte de Beaune, large additional swaths of the
greater Chablis region were ravaged by two hailstorms in May. By many accounts,
production of village wine in Chablis will be down by at least 60% to 65% in
2016, and that represents a huge quantity of lost juice. The second hail storm,
which struck the southern part of the appellation on May 27, was
especially ferocious: in the space of barely 15 minutes at about 1:30 in
the morning, a massive amount of vineyard acreage was stripped clean of buds
and foliage.

This map above was created by Didier Séguier,
director/winemaker for Domaine William Fèvre. It shows how extensively the
Chablis region suffered from frost and hail this spring (grêle is hail and gel is frost). Interestingly, the Grand Cru slope in the heart of the appellation was
virtually untouched.

Note that grape clusters are initiated during the previous
year’s growing season before the flowering, so the vineyards hardest hit by
hail in 2016 will most likely produce barely half of a normal crop in 2017. The photo below does not show vines in December; I took it at Domaine
Brocard on June 10.